Mumbai neutralises falling coconut threat to Obama

The municipal authorities in Mumbai have removed coconuts from trees around the city's Gandhi museum in case any of them fall on US President Barack Obama when he visits, an official said Wednesday.

"The coconuts were falling off, so we requested the local authorities here to remove the remainder," the executive secretary of Mani Bhavan, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told AFP.

Mani Bhavan, where the father of the Indian independence movement Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his visits to the city between 1917 and 1934, is in south Mumbai on Laburnum Grove, which is lined with coconut trees.

Ajgaonkar said the precaution was taken as local and US officials undertook security sweeps of the museum and library before Obama's visit on Saturday.

Obama has often cited Gandhi as a major inspiration. He name-checked him in his Nobel peace prize speech and had a portrait of him in his US Senate office.